The family was initially “terrified” of the giant creature, which could have flipped the boat out of the water.
A humpback whale took a shine to the vessel and stayed within a few feet of the family boat for more than hour.
The whale swam under the boat and along both sides, then spun and slapped its tail and flippers within inches of the boat. It often surfaced and sprayed the family from its blowhole. “I can taste it … his breath isn’t bad,” Mounts said while filming. Andrew Trites, director of marine mammal research at the University of British Columbia, said boat encounters with humpbacks are not common. But as the species continues a great comeback from the whaling slaughter of the early 1900s — and extinction in the Salish Sea — he expects more close encounters could happen.Article content
Although humpbacks in B.C. waters are here to feed, the young whale could have understood the depth finder as “a love song” and could have been “getting pleasure as part of a social interaction” from hearing the sound waves, Trites said.This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.Mounts said the depth finder was on when he saw the whale, and went off when he turned off the boat engine.
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